The National Weather Service has quietly ended the use of a language translation tool that gave critical information during extreme weather events to non-English speakers.
The tool, which used artificial intelligence to translate English emergency warnings into other languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Samoan, was taken down on April 1.
“The translated text product functionality on this site may be interrupted after 3/31/2025. Further details will be provided when available,” a website for the tool now reads.
The tool was part of an approved 2023 Congressional budget.
“This language translation project will improve our service equity to traditionally underserved and vulnerable populations that have limited English proficiency,” Ken Graham, director of the NWS, said at the time. “By providing weather forecasts and warnings in multiple languages, NWS will improve community and individual readiness and resilience as climate change drives more extreme weather events.”
A spokesperson for the NWS said the tool has ended because of a “contract lapse.”
“Due to a contract lapse, NWS paused the automated language translation services for our products until further notice,” a statement to HuffPost said.
Before the new tool, the NWS would manually translate languages. It’s unclear if there are plans to return to manual translations.
A worker currently at the NWS, who asked to remain anonymous over fears of retaliation, told HuffPost the change could have devastating effects for non-English speakers who rely on emergency warnings.
In Miami, Florida, for instance, hurricanes are a yearly threat. The 2024 Census data shows that nearly 70% of the population in Miami is Latino or Hispanic.
“Knowing how many people in this country speak Spanish as their primary language, this tool was a quick, easy way to get information out to them,” the source said. “Unfortunately, the process is frozen at this moment.”
The tool also translated languages for NOAA’s Weather Radio, which broadcasts critical information during weather events. Work was also being done to add even more languages to the tool. Not anymore.
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“They’ve made so much progress in other languages as well, so the fact that they cannot continue the progress on growing this translation tool is just very disappointing,” the source said.
The removal of the critical tool is another blow to the NWS, which faced massive cuts along with other federal agencies under billionaire Elon Musk’s command earlier this year.